CORRECTED - SAM, Gatehouse launch first Sharia water fund

(in 3rd paragraph, corrects spelling of fund manager's name to Kueffer)

* Fund to target Islamic institutions, wealthy families

* SAM to manage assets, Gatehouse to screen companies

LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) - UK Islamic bank Gatehouse and Swiss fund management company Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) said on Thursday they have jointly launched the first Islamic compliant water-technology fund.

The fund will target at Islamic institutional investors and wealthy families.

SAM, which already manages a $1.5 billion mainstream water fund, will manage the assets. The fund will be run by Dieter Kueffer and Pieter Busscher, who run the existing mainstream water fund.

The new fund will be benchmarked against the MSCI World index.

Gatehouse will screen the companies included in the universe, to ensure they comply with Islamic finance principles, which forbids charging interest and speculating.

The business tie-up is the second venture combining ethical and sustainable fund management with Islamic finance.

Last month, UK-based F&C Asset Management partnered with BMB Islamic to offer an investment product combining ethical and Islamic principles.

SAM is majority owned by Dutch financial group Robeco, Gatehouse Bank is owned by Kuwaiti investment company Securities House. (Reporting by Cecilia Valente; Editing by Andrew Macdonald) (For the Hedge Hub blog, visit: blogs.reuters.com/hedgehub/ For the Global Investing blog, visit: here)